In washing, drying and styling one's hair, several end results are desired. Firstly, and most obviously, one desires that the hair be thoroughly cleansed. Most desirable is a hair care process which maintains the look and feel of clean hair between hair washings.
Also, one desires a hair care process or product that provides hair styling benefits, especially hair style achievement and hold. Such style retention is generally accomplished by either of two routes: permanent chemical alteration or temporary alteration of hair style and shape. A permanent alteration, for example a chemical perm, involves the use of chemical agents to react with the hair in order to achieve the desired effect. This permanent chemical alteration of the hair, however, is not an object of the present invention. The styling benefit provided by the present invention is a temporary alteration. A temporary alteration is one which can be removed by water or by shampooing. In other words, it is a non-permanent alteration.
Temporary style alteration has generally been accomplished by means of the application of a separate composition or compositions after the shampooing process to provide style achievement and hold of hair. The materials used to provide these temporary styling benefits have generally been resins or gums that are usually applied in the form of mousses, gels, lotions, or sprays. This approach presents several significant drawbacks to the user. It requires a separate step following shampooing to apply the styling composition. In addition, many of these styling agents are aesthetically unappealing, leaving the hair feeling sticky or stiff after application of the styling composition, thereby defeating the purpose of the cleansing process. Moreover, many styling agents do not provide a long-lasting style benefit or provide a styling benefit that is too easily disturbed.
While the shampoo compositions that are disclosed in the prior art provide cleansing and conditioning benefits, they do not provide effective styling benefits. The benefits derived from styling are highly desirable. However, styling agents, such as styling polymers, cannot be readily incorporated into conventional shampoos without suppressing the lathering and cleansing ability of the shampoos, or the ultimate deposition and performance of the styling polymer.
In the present invention, it has surprisingly been found that certain surfactant systems such as alkyl glyceryl ether sulfonates can provide high cleansing and lathering properties in a system also containing a styling polymer. Furthermore, it has been found that when the styling polymer is dissolved in a non-polar volatile solvent that the styling polymer is readily dispersed in the shampoo composition and that the polymer is deposited onto the hair during the cleansing and rinsing process. Previous developments in this area employed a styling polymer dissolved in a polar solvent, which was emulsified into a shampoo base. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,532, to Wells et al., issued Jun. 9, 1993, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Polar solvents, however, can inhibit the deposition of the styling polymer. These solvents tend to be too soluble in the shampoo base, and can carry the styling polymer into the water phase of the shampoo and away from the hair into the the rinse water during the rinsing process. In addition, many of the commonly used polar solvents have strong objectionable odors or may be hydrolytically unstable in an aqueous envoirnment. A non-polar solvent would be prefereable in such instances, however, non-polar solvents tend to interfere with the cleansing and lathering ability of the surfactant base of the shampoo. Typical high lathering surfactants such as alkyl sulfates can build lather in the presence of non-polar solvents, but have the disadvantage of reducing deposition so that no styling benefit is achieved. Alkyl glyceryl ether sulfonates are also known to be good lathering surfactants. See U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,465, to Parran et al., issued Apr. 11, 1961, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. It has, however, surprisingly been found that alkyl glyceryl ether sulfonate surfactants are able to produce good cleansing and lathering without interfering with the deposition of a hair styling polymer dissolved in a non-polar volatile solvent.
The present invention relates to hair shampoo compositions which comprise an alkyl glyceryl ether sulfonate surfactant, a hair styling polymer, a non-polar volatile solvent for dissolving the polymer, and water. Shampooing with these products provides both hair cleansing and styling benefits from a single product. These compositions also have good lathering ability. It has also been discovered that when a hair conditioning agent is added to the aforementioned product, hair conditioning, cleansing, and styling benefits can be achieved from a single hair care product. It has also been discovered that the styling shampoo compositions of the present invention provide product viscosities that maintain product phase stability and a consumer pleasing aesthetic appearance.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide hair shampoo compositions which provide both effective hair cleansing and good styling properties from a single composition.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide hair shampoo compositions which provide good lathering ability.
It is also an object of the present invention to formulate hair shampoo compositions which provide good style retention benefits without leaving the hair with a stiff, sticky, or tacky feel.
It is also an object of the present invention to formulate hair shampoo compositions which also provide effective conditioning properties.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for cleansing and styling the hair.
These and other objects will become readily apparent from the detailed description which follows.